This invention relates generally to improved helmets or head gear and more specifically to fire helmets having the capability of absorbing both apex and lateral impact forces such as might be encountered during fire fighting activities.
Generally speaking, such fire helmets have long been known and used in the prior art. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,339 issued to P. A. Coombs on Sep. 1, 1981 which shows a fireman's helmet having an outer shell, a non-resilient foam liner and a plastic rim into which the liner is molded. A series of headstraps crossing one another at an apex on top of the wearer's head extend radially outward and downward under and across the base of the rim, thence upwardly between the foam liner and the outer shell to loop around a resilient tube which is inset in an outwardly opening slot extending around and within an outer surface portion of the foam liner.
Apex impact forces occurring on the reference helmet tend to be distributed and absorbed as the helmet is forced downwardly toward the head of the wearer thus tending to stretch the headstraps, flatten the resilient tube, and deform the compressible, non-resilient liner which supports the tube. Such deformation of the non-resilient foam liner resulting from distribution of the apex impact forces on the reference helmet is a serious disadvantage since a principle purpose of the liner is to absorb lateral impact forces occurring at the sides of the helmet away from the apex.
By means of the present invention, a suspension system for a foam lined fire helmet is provided which substantially overcomes this and other difficulties previously encountered in the prior art.